Dave 1, Aunt Bee 0

I love gingham and a Indian tablecloth which I have worn as a scarf, as you do.

Great find, crochet mag from the 70's,  I remember them well.

Dave's petty revenge when I didn't dish up his dinner  quick enough.

mmmm,  must remember to take lid of box containing  lovely Christmas decorations,  before I photograph them.

Sorry about lack of posts, everyone including me has had the flu, actually we all still have the flu. The camera went walkabout, oddly enough in my bag, believe me it's the Black Hole of Calcutta in there, and then I couldn't download photos till I found the cable which of course was under Aj's bed. Where else would it be ? But on a happy note Aj can drive without us in the car so for the last two days he has taken Basil's car to work, yahoo!, no more getting him to work at 7.30am and then waiting in my work carpark for an hour till I start work. Will post again tomorrow as I have more to show and tell, including the weather forecast, and it's all bad. Love Aunt Bee.

The week after the last post.We did find snow the following Sunday.

4am early Monday morning, July 25th.

Dave is not happy does his duty then spends the day under Tom's bed.

This is looking good for a snow day.

For 2 days I'm forced to watch DVD's, crochet and  read books.

Aj is persuaded to clean the snow off the Sky dish, while I take photo from inside.

Yes I finished the blanket, and we needed it, I love and so does Basil.

The no snow trip. July 21st.

This is our destination, the Southern Alps

Only 1 hour from Christchurch.

I was driving, no 4 wheel drive, no chains and 6 other people, only one other who could drive.

Just about here when we turned back, something about icy roads.

And this was the snow, just ice, bloody freezing as we had already started to climb.

Back to the Springfield Station for lunch, shelter plus toilets what more could we want.

****** Blogger

I am so sorry for not posting but ****** Blogger wont let me download any photos and I have so much to tell you. The snow hunt, which was fruitless, and the real snow which we weren't looking for and we didn't have to go up a mountain either to find it. But I want to have the photos, so tomorrow I shall sit at the computer till Blogger does what it should.Humble apologies from the heart of my bottom or some other grovelling line, don't you just hate Blogger when you have so much to tell and it wont let you do what you want. Rant over, till tomorrow adieu and yes we have snow, not one snow day but two, that's a record. Love Aunt Bee.

No water for 2 days.

oh! the joy of a bath and to be able to wash my hair, no water for 2 days due to earthquake damage to the water pipe down the road. They sang "Smelly Cat" to me at work, I resent that, I was feeling grubby not smelly!

Some more photos of destruction and a few bargains

Won't be repairing buses in there any time soon.

Back view couldn't get closer.

They have taken the copper off the dome, when the wooden structure is down, the back wall is going to fall.

sign on a fence opposite the Library

The old Edgeware library and was the community centre, obviously not  now, the building is on a lean, it's not you.

I love it, Basil hates it and it's Scottish, there is no pleasing him.

Only $2, I've wanted one of these, so Nigella.

Just look at Tommy and Tuppence on the front cover, not what I'm used too.

I have my glasses and they are an improvement, but we are eating very basic meals this week as I am the provider of food. Basil and I went into town this afternoon,to take the photos before the buildings come down. Morning, noon and night the trucks are taking the rubble to the Forrest to dump, the CBD is disappearing before our eyes. The Library it was a library when we lived down the road, it was a wonderful old place, with little old ladies who were volunteers and very limited opening times but some of the best books in town. This is going back nearly 30 years, it is a landmark, a few metres up the street the supermarket, the bread shop, the bakery, the video shop, the vege man and the local pub are gone, the doctors is closed as well as the hardware shop till the engineers think what to do with them, this has gutted the community.
Basil took me out for lunch after, to McDonalds not any McDonald's but the one in the posh suburb and very nice it was too, busy but not noisy, just humming quietly. I went to the Mall to pick up some junk food for Aj and Coop (Aj's old school friend) because they are watching Auckland vs (us) Canterbury, it's us 24 to 16 so it's going well. The Crusaders lost the Super 14 final to the Red's, and although Aj was gutted, it's straight into the ITM cup and then the World Cup. I think we will be Rugbyed out by the end of the year.I did go to the market yesterday, but other than veges and another bag, I didn't buy anything, counting the pennies till next week when there is a Book Sale in that posh suburb I mentioned, I'm hoping for a better type of book, haha, not sure what a better type of book is, something to improve the mind perhaps, gosh that's to late for me, I'll be looking for murder, food and craft, and what does that say about me, I simply don't know. So that's it, have nothing else to tell you, except I will be marking out the vege garden next weekend, I'm trying to do it in a more planned manner, yes I know these sort of things never go to plan but I've roped in the family with a mixture of bribes and threats, the usual way I get family co-operation. Love Aunt Bee.

Who will rid me of this turbulent Blogger. No, don't go charging off to the Cathedral.

Joseph Seibel booties, love them.

I've always wanted one of these, it still has all the spices in it, don't worry I'll clean it  soon.

I bought this for Tom, I thought it was cool, he wished it was Ronald Reagan, where did I go wrong ?

I can do no more, Blogger is being a cow and I can't download any more photos. Life has been busy I apologise for not posting. But on the bright side we had the contractors in from EQC and they have signed off on all the work to the house, we will have to move out at some stage(there is no timeline given) but the house and garage will be repaired. We have the noisiest floors (they the contractors) have ever heard, I'm so proud in a only a mother can be proud of a ugly baby way, fancy having the noisiest floors, I'll be sorry when they are fixed as there has been no sneaking quietly in after the pub by "the men", the floor tells everyone when they get home. I have been to the optician today, it's my old optician's daughter actually, boy did I feel old, but she is a crocheter, so we had a good gossip about yarn. Of course this didn't make any difference to the bill, $858.00 NZ, and that's using  my own frames,they are glasses  I rarely wear,all I'm getting is new lens. Bloody hell, all I need now is a tooth ache and I'll be bankrupt. Love Aunty Bee/Barbara the broke.